41852 - The Skopian issue doesn’t come to an end with the voting of the Prespes Pre-Agreement
N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Athina Kehagias
It may be that the governmental propaganda has tried to present it in such a way, but the Skopian issue doesn’t come to an end with the voting of the Prespes Pre-Agreement. Many have forgotten how important the signing of the Protocol for the Admission of Skopje to NATO is, because it is only with that, that the process that enables the amendments to the Skopian Constitution become activated. More specifically after the voting of the Prespes Pre-Agreement, the signing by the President of the Hellenic Republic is required, in order for it to become law which will be published in the Official Gazette, then on, a diplomatic notification will be given by Greece to Skopje in order for them to be informed about the decision taken. The process then requires for the information towards the international organizations , namely the United Nations, NATO and the European Union. Because in NATO’s case, once its 29 member states are informed, they will ought to sign the protocol of the Skopian accession to NATO of which a copy is send to the Greek Parliament for ratification. Consequently, we will have voting again by the MPs during which they’ll have to make the decision regarding the admission of Skopje to NATO. But we know there are many MPs, especially within the ruling political party, who are against NATO as such, and they now will have to result to a new exceedance and vote pro this protocol, whereas for so many years, not to say decades, they were insisting that NATO constitutes an enemy of Greece, and by doing so they will show the coherence of their mere thinking. We therefore have another form of pressure upon these MPs, and we ought to force them to speak in a clear manner about this issue, without hiding behind political party directions. The battle continues relentlessly.